Rhyl Reflections at the Fair

Another week and another leap forward in progress with the latest installment of Rhyl Reflections.

This week we focussed on the lovely Jean Sedgewick, who we have previously worked with on the project when we interviewed her about her personal memories of Rhyl.

Our location was the magnificent Tir Prince funfair – somewhere that Jean and her family have always had connections with.

We had around 10 of the Rhyl Reflections team out with us during our session.

Jean talks about her fond memories of living and working on the fair – such as elephants being washed in the sea by the visiting circus – something you certainly wouldn’t see today!

Jean even recanted memories of Bob Monkhouse himself gracing the nightclubs in the area!

Jean’s piece goes on to recall the ‘tricks of the fair trade’ – and how patrons were ‘gently encouraged’ to participate in the fair games!

And to top it off, Jean explains how her husbands family trained animals for a living – including a bear that went on to find movie stardom in the US.

This weeks session really was a special one – thanks to everyone who came along and offered their time and skills to help film this wonderful segment of the Rhyl Reflections film.

A big thank you to Adam Williams and his team at Tir Prince Fun Park for their hospitality.

Huge thanks, as always, to Linda Hurst for her fab photos on the set!

Rhyl Reflections is a project run by TAPE in collaboration with Denbighshire Communities First. We welcome all who wish to take part, regardless of ability, whether it be in front of the camera, or behind, learning skills on set.

It was a new experience for me, filming in somewhere like a fair, and one that I really enjoyed!
– Mark Jackson

I got some new and interesting shots, which is building up experience for me. I’m really loving learning the camera techniques -and Jean’s stories are like gold dust!
– Stuey Jones

Where do I start? I get really nervous, so asking the questions has helped me improve my confidence. I find Jeans stories fascinating and I enjoyed being able to ad-lib some of the questions during the interview.
– Paula Jones